How to prepare your house for Airbnb? Discover more with our top tips!
Whether is your primary home or a vacation home, renting out your own place to strangers may feel overwhelming at first.
Having checked all the practical stuff first, which Airbnb explains in detail at this link, you are left with your home to be decorated. And that’s where usually people start panicking!
Have I got enough towels? And where do I keep them? Will I have enough privacy? Would they like my home? Should I focus on making it comfortable or to look cool in pictures? What items should I include in the kitchen? And so on.
And that’s why many people nowadays ask for professional help. Now, unless you need to do a major renovation (in which case I would recommend you hire an interior architect), there are some easy steps that you can take to transform your home into an Airbnb paradise. And I’ve listed them all below.
You just need to follow them, have fun during the process and dream about how you want to spend that extra money!
How to prepare your house for Airbnb
#1 Pre-planning
Were you expecting to start with a good old-fashioned planning phase? If so don’t worry, I love sitting at my desk with a coffee and a notebook too. There’s something exciting when starting a project anew and write tons of to-do lists. We’ll get to that.
But first I need you to look at your home, roll your sleeves up and do a massive decluttering Marie Kondo style.
I’m sure you know this better than me: going through your own possessions and assessing whether every single object is worth keeping, gives you clarity.
You also may discover to own stuff you had forgotten about, so before you even think about going shopping have a look at what you have already got. You will see things in a new light and reorganise your storage space.
Make an inventory of all the potentially useful things you’ve already got, as well as a list of the things you wish to replace. This will help you a lot when planning how to set up your home Airbnb.
|| Read more about how to declutter your home in this post
#2 Planning
Now you can sit down, brainstorm and make actionable lists.
Try to understand what your unique selling point is. Being a host is not easy, competition is high. That’s why you need to offer something that your competitors may not provide.
Is your home in a good location? Great, write it at the top of the description. Are you an amazing baker? Offer cakes in the morning. Do you have a great eye for interiors? Unleash your creative self and decorate like a pro, good interior pictures are worth a thousand words.
Don’t forget to make a checklist for cleaning. And if you are not cleaning give it to your cleaner, so that he can follow your schedule and make sure your home is spotless. If your guests are going to be like me, a bad review about cleanliness will put them off booking so you should minimise that risk. Make sure that fridge and bathrooms (and all other areas where uncomfortable smells may arise) are always pristine.
#3 Restyling
This is my favourite part, obviously!
Your first focus should be practicality: you want to fix any hazards and freshen up.
Then you can start thinking about your home interior style. Weirdly enough, my top advice here would be to not overthink it.
As designer Isle Crawford predicted in 2014, Airbnb has changed the way we see design. As explained on this post on DeZeen we started to see design “more as something that is really about the ongoing story of our lives”.
Don’t be afraid to add your personal touch, this will help you stand out. Who knows, someone may remember that ‘cool little house with so many country music books which inspired me to get back at playing the guitar again’.
Make sure basic furniture is in good conditions and opt for light neutral colours if in doubt. It’s better to keep things simple rather than trying to be original at any cost. In fact, simple and bright interiors are very appealing because white is often associated with a sense of cleanliness.
#4 Go shopping
Invest in guest-only resources. Here is a list of basic recommended items:
- Sockets adaptors
- First-aid kit
- Fire extinguisher
- Extra sheets and towels (preferably white which can be easily bleached in case you need to get rid of stains)
- Extra blankets
- New pillows (you want to change these quite regularly)
- Extra toilet paper
- Hair dryer
- Shower staples (shampoo, conditioner and soap) and everything needed for hand-washing
- Iron
- Daily kitchen cleaning products
- Comfortable mattresses, if you don’t have them already
Things should be visible and easy to access. You won’t have a lot of time to explain how the house works so keep the verbal instruction to a bare minimum. Make a little written guide with basic info like check-in and check-out timing, how to get rid of rubbish, how to turn the heating on, Wifi password and where to find the closest bus station and restaurants. Put this list on your fridge so that they know where to find it.
Display everyday items so that everything is as visible and accessible as possible. And make sure guests know what they can use. If you don’t want them to use something, you should probably lock it some place safe.
To get you inspired, here is a beautiful project designed by Position Collective for a Airbnb house in Budapest (Photographs by Balázs Glódi, as seen on DeZeen ).
#5 Sell an experience
Don’t forget that the moment you put your home on Airbnb, you become a business owner. So, you should start acting like one.
That means your clients come first, your primary goal is to make sure that not only they get good value for their money but that they ultimately have a great time while on vacation.
The accommodation may have a massive impact on their overall experience, so how do you deliver? Think about the little things: small details like flowers, local fresh fruit and yogurt available for their first breakfast, some fancy soap bars or a complimentary toothbrush could make all the difference. You want them to feel as if they were living there, but in a dreamy/inspiring version of their lives.
|| If you would like to read a bit more about hospitality and how to design experiences in general, here are two extra articles for you. Check them out!
